Body cameras are a necessary a tool for transparency, but bring baggage as well.

FILE - In this Jan. 15, 2014 file photo, a Los Angeles Police officer wears an on-body camera during a demonstration for media in Los Angeles. The fatal police shooting of the unarmed black teenager in Ferguson, Mo. has prompted calls for more officers to wear so-called "body cameras," simple, lapel-mounted gadgets that record the interactions between the public and law enforcement. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File)

The camera doesn't lie, or so the saying goes. However, cameras can obfuscate, reframe and reflect the biases of people behind the lens.

There's no question that the Houston Police Department needs body cameras for officers (a policy that these pages have vociferously advocated). While his timing feels a bit tardy, Houston Police Chief Charles McClelland is correct to request cameras for the city's police. As this policy finally moves forward, however, it is time for a reminder that cameras are a only tool, not a panacea.

There has been talk for years about body cameras in HPD, but the cause came to the forefront after a series of articles about police shootings, written by reporter James Pinkerton, were published in the Chronicle. Between 2008 and 2012, officers shot 121 civilians, more than a quarter of whom were unarmed. Not one of those instances was captured on camera. While grand juries refused to indict officers in every one of those shootings, it is hard to believe that every bullet fired was justified under the law. At the top of the list sits the instance of Brian Claunch, a mentally ill double-amputee who was shot and killed by police after brandishing a ballpoint pen.

People need to be able to trust their police. Body cameras are supposed to act as a two-way avenue to that end. Civilians can keep an eye on law enforcement, but officers also know they'll have a camera on their side in disagreements that put a police officer's word against a civilian's.

These benefits aren't just hypothetical. According to studies, cameras often change police interaction for the better. An experiment out of Arizona State University found that police officers with body cameras conducted significantly fewer stop and frisks, and were more likely to initiate contact with citizens. The city of Rialto, Calif, found that officers' use of force declined by 60 percent and citizen complaints against police fell 88 percent one year after all police were outfitted with cameras.

Despite these optimistic statistics, police recordings do not have a perfect record. There are continuing questions about ownership of the recorded video and who gets to access them. The city of Seattle had to pay $60,000 in a recent lawsuit after refusing to turn over police videos when requested by citizens.

Police departments across the nation have also faced instances of officers simply turning off cameras. That happened last month in New Orleans immediately before an officer shot a man in the forehead. Some police officers will even purposefully break their recording devices, as internal investigations revealed at the Los Angeles Police Department.

Civil liberties and police officers' groups have also pointed out that cameras don't always allow for appropriate discretion. Body cameras can force police to record their contact with the public even if citizens ask them to stop. While people should want to keep an eye on officers when they pull their guns, folks should be less eager to record police trying to console a grieving family.

And then there's the cost. HPD's budget has skyrocketed over the past decade, yet the department has 100 fewer officers to show for it. Meanwhile, 20,000 reported crimes with reasonable leads went ignored last year. Internal reports draw a picture of a management structure ill-prepared to deploy its nine-figure budget in the most efficient and effective manner possible. Instead of City Hall piling $8 million onto the police budget to fund cameras, taxpayers should push HPD to find room in its already substantive annual allotment. The federal government may also be an appropriate source for camera funds, given the Justice Department's role in guaranteeing civil liberties.

While a Washington, D.C., study predicted that cameras could save money by reducing lawsuits against the police, we'll believe it when we see it.

There's no doubt that body cameras can help add some much-needed transparency to HPD. But cameras can also transform a multifaceted and complex situation into a 2 dimensional picture. At the same time, two people watching the same video can see vastly different experiences. It falls on men and women, not cameras, to ensure that justice doesn't merely exist in the eye of the beholder but is guaranteed to everyone.